Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.

Have you ever heard the phrase, it is better to keep your mouth closed and have people wonder if you are stupid than open it and remove all doubt? (Hakim al Harbi)

When Demaratus was asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want of words, he replied, "A fool cannot hold his tongue.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well, nor sufficient judgment to keep silent.

Knowledge is power only as long as you keep your mouth shut.

If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

It is well for one to know more than he says.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Be sure your wisest words are those you do not say.

You know, I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me.

It illustrates vividly my incapacity of knowing when to be silent and when to speak.

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

Discretion is a very valuable asset.

To be silent is sometimes an art, yet not so great a one as certain people would have us believe, who are wisest they are most silent.

To many men well-fitting doors are not set on their tongues.

Have more than you show, Speak less than you know.

It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

Knowing when to keep your mouth shut is invariably more important than opening it at the right time.

Nothing is more like a wise man than a fool who holds his tongue.

Much tongue and much judgment seldom go together.